Word: gabin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...dreary Normandy resort town, Jean Gabin maintains a precarious perch on the wagon. Once France's biggest lush, Gabin has sworn off the stuff since a dark moment of the war and he hasn't wavered since. But into this town stumbles Jean-Paul Belmondo, Gabin's heir apparent to the drinking title...
...Monkey in Winter," a 1962 film having its "Boston premiere" at the Brattle this week. The plot's a natural; so is the film. On top of some solid, straightforward direction (by Henri Verneuil) and a lush background score, "Monkey in Winter" has the slickest combination of all--Gabin and Belmondo...
Belmondo is Gabin's successor as the troubled young tough guy of the French cinema. But cast together, each has stepped out of basic snarl. Gabin is a mellowed inn-keeper, content with the quiet life of his tiny Tigreville. And Belmondo--the nihilistic punk of "Breathless"--is a harried advertising man who hits the bottle more often than any girl friend...
...clear from the start that the two will go on some sort of bender before the end ,(it's a beauty when it comes), but even before then Gabin and Belmondo have bounced their personalities off each other to fine effect. At one points the latently alcoholic Gabin and the actively drunk Belmondo compare the far-flung fantasies each has known while drunk. In doing so, they display both a humor and quiet intensity that rises from more than what they actually do or say. They ("the nobility of drunkards") share an understanding the audience is also allowed to comprehend...
Thereafter, on a predictable split-second schedule, practically everything goes wrong. At the climax, Old Wave Director Henri Verneuil achieves a scene that is a gem of understatement. Plopped down at poolside like a bull walrus minus his tusks and a billion clams, Veteran Actor Gabin blinks goodbye to his ill-gotten gains, filling the moment with memorable stupefaction. Best side bets of Any Number Can Win are glimpses of the human flotsam and jetsam beached on the Riviera, but all in all it is a cinematic gamble that never quite pays...